Hello everyone
I am new to the Monty Roberts Online Uni and his methods (and I think everything I am learning is great!) and am wondering what Monty's position is on Imprinting foals soon after birth?
We are expecting our first foal later this year and we want to make sure we give him or her the best possible start, so the more information my husband and I are able to get, the better.
Looking forward to your responses,
Kind regards,
Gen
Welcome, Gen!
Monty does believe in imprinting and has a nice section on it in his handbook "From My Hands to Yours". I highly recommend you read that, and good luck with your baby!
Hi Gen,
Good to have you with us and even greater that you're "expecting" a foal!
Monty has his own imprintingroutine, as Julie mentioned above, his is based on the methods of Dr.Robert Miller, whose book "Imprint Training of the newborn foal" I'd suggest you read too. Reading Miller gives you an even deeper insight in the "why" and "how to" and "when".
He was the one to make this method known to a larger public and is a friend and admirer of Monty's.
Will you let us know how you're doing and maybe you could put some things on videotape?
Happy foaling!
Miriam
Hi Gen,
Congrats on the coming foal! It's an amazing experience.
It's great that you want to give it the best start possible, but if this is your very first foal and you've never tried imprinting before, I would like to raise a finger to ask you to tread very lightly as you really need to know what you are doing.
If you have no one there with experience in either foal birth or imprinting, you will have your hands full just with the birth going right. (I know exactly how that is!)
By all means help the foal into the world and touch it as you do, but be sure you never get in the way of the mare, or between them. (I'm pretty sure Monty states this too.) You won't cause any damage whatsoever by leaving them alone, but an imprint that is done incorrectly just might.
I wish you all the best of luck with the foal!!! Do let us know how it went. :)
Hello everyone
Thank you so much for your comments and the information. I have a friend who lives close by who has been breeding horses for most of his life and he was the one telling me to imprint our new foal.
That's why I was asking. I really wanted to make sure it was a good thing to do because I had heard that it can make problems if done incorrectly. I have ordered "From My Hands to Yours" and I did see the Imprinting book written by Dr Miller in town the other day... Will track that one down too.
My friend also said that he will come over to give us a hand when the time comes. It will not be until the end of the year, but we are so excited and really want to do the best we can. I will definately let you all know how we go.
The baby will be something special. Our mare is in foal to one of Hollywood Return's last standing sons here in Australia. There are not many Sires that closely related to Hollywood Return around now which makes the whole thing even more exciting.
Thank you again for getting back to me, and I hope this posting finds you all well.
See you later,
Gen